


Arya Stark, (Night) Kingslayer

by SilverShortyyy



Series: The Last Requiem [5]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Battle of Winterfell, Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 02:50:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18682618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverShortyyy/pseuds/SilverShortyyy
Summary: Post-Battle of WinterfellArya Stark has just killed the Night King and, as much as she prefers little to no conversations these days, needless to say, it can no longer be avoided. She doesn't mind it as much as she expects, though.





	Arya Stark, (Night) Kingslayer

**Author's Note:**

> This is my tribute to the Night King's death. Or rather, my tribute to Arya killing him.

Arya Stark had never properly talked to Jaime Lannister before.

On that topic, she hadn't properly talked to at least half of the people here, either. Neither did she particularly want to, but as it is, it can't be avoided.

She thinks she'd rather just talk to one new person. Just one.

"How does it feel being a Kingslayer?"

Last time Arya saw him, Jaime Lannister was a cocky bastard. Now, as he stood beside her, he was suddenly so unsure of himself, so unsure of _her_ , actually _scared_ of misstepping his words.

She smiles. He's changed.

"Good. Better than you."

"I'll bet." He ruffles his hair and sighs. He's _definitely_ changed. "You didn't have to stab him in the back."

"He turned around for me." When he sees her smirking, he seems even more unnerved. "Lucky for me, Night Kings are still aware of what's behind them."

When Jaime opens his mouth to question her, she answers without him speaking.

"Not that they're aware of everything behind them."

For the first time in their conversation (and the entire time she's seen him during his current stay in Winterfell, really), he smiles. He smiles, then he laughs.

She doesn't understand why he laughs, but she laughs along with him. Better than nothing. A good laugh feels quite nice after the battle anyway.

Another face of Death, defeated.

She's laughing with Jaime when Sansa and Tyrion come in.

"Well, well," of course, Tyrion has wine. "You two are getting along."

"We're Kingslayers." Arya says. She doesn't think she's spoken so lightly for a while now. "Makes it easier to get along."

"That you are." When Sansa looks at her, Arya sees a shine there that she has never seen before.

Sansa was always the better daughter, so Arya never expected Sansa to ever look up to her, ever be proud of her. She didn't think it mattered, at this point. But it fills her with warmth when Sansa smiles at her, looks at her almost as if Sansa could bend the knee for her.

Or, to be more accurate, as if Sansa would now complain less if Arya launched a whole plateful of pie at Sansa's face.

"That I am."

And Arya knows that she'll have to face a lot more people than Jaime "Kingslayer" Lannister, her sister, and her sister's ex-husband.

Arya still can't quite get over that last bit. A lot has happened, definitely.

* * *

When Jon finds Arya, he's the one who runs to her this time.

"You little _bastard_!" A laugh, a real laugh, bubbles up her chest without preamble. He picks her up and swings her around; she feels like a child again, a child with her big brother. "I can't believe you did it."

"I did it."

"Yes, you damn did, you little _bastard_!" Arya laughs, and Jon smiles, and for a moment, the war is won, the world is fine, for a second there is no sadness, no grief. When he puts her down, both of them have ruffled hair. "How did you do it?"

"I jumped at him from behind and switched the dagger at the last moment." Arya decides she won't tell him the other details of how unless he asks. "From the hand I was about to use to the hand hanging at my side."

"And he didn't see it coming?"

"Not even I saw that coming, when she tried that on me." It's Brienne who speaks, the man named Podrick at her side. "Your sister's a real fighter."

"That she is." Jon smiles, and Arya had never been so proud of all she's gone through. For a moment, she lets herself become a little girl again, full of pride as her big brother looks at her with pride in his eyes.

* * *

"So, uh," Arya remembers seeing him watch her fight wights off. Apparently he's survived both the Battle of the Bastards and the Battle of Winterfell without really doing... Anything. "I heard ya killed the Night King."

"Yes?" She doesn't quite like being looked at as if she was still a child, but his mixed look of fear amuses her too. They all seem confused about her; has she changed that much?

"By some chance, did the Red Woman have anything to do with it?"

Arya did not see that one coming.

It takes her a breath to mask herself back.

"How would you know if she did?"

He huffs. "She tends to have a hand in things like this. Always."

"What do you mean 'things like this'?"

Arya had never really spoken to Ser Davos Seaworth. The Onion Knight, he's called.

His head almost looks like an onion.

"I mean things like Great Wars and such. She's a witch, you know. Can really see the future, probably." When she gives nothing away, he continues. "She gave birth to a shadow demon once. It killed Renly Baratheon."

At that, Arya finally had a reaction. He laughs at her, and she's pretty sure his reaction looks more out of place than hers.

"I think I've seen stranger things."

"Well, I saw her give birth to it." Arya looks even more confused, and Davos laughs even more. "Don't worry, I was as speechless as you were. Here I was, just a lowly knight, witnessing some dark _thing_ happen right in front of my eyes."

Well, Arya thinks. He seems trustworthy enough.

"She told me I'd close eyes forever." Arya looks elsewhere, far away, when she says this. "Brown eyes, green eyes, and blue eyes. She told me that when I first met her, three years ago."

The short silence echoed the dallying of the people from somewhere else in Winterfell.

"Did she read it in a fire?"

"She looked into my eyes and said those to me."

Arya thinks that to be the end of it.

"Seems like she _can_ see the future, after all. Just probably not in the flames."

Arya wants to ask more about this Red Woman, but now doesn't seem to be the right time, at least not while there are still wars going on.

Instead, Arya just laughs, and so does Davos.

* * *

The Night King is dead, and Arya Stark had killed him with a Valyrian steel dagger to the gut. That's as much as most people heard.

To those in their inner circle, they eventually found out that the dagger Arya had used was given to her by Bran, who in turn had received it from Littlefinger, who in turn had received it from Catelyn Stark after Littlefinger had sent Bran to be assassinated. The whole story is too long, so mostly it just ended up as 'Arya killed the Night King with the dagger that was supposed to kill Bran'.

But Arya isn't quite ready to give it up just yet. Seems like two royals fallen at that blade sounds better than just one.

When she tells Bran this, and only Bran, he doesn't quite react, but doesn't tell her to do otherwise. So she keeps it, for later usage.

Later, she tells Sansa that Cersei is hers.

Sansa tells Arya that it isn't her that Arya should be worried about, but Daenerys Targaryen.

"Do me a favor and get to Cersei before Daenerys does." Sansa and Arya had never quite understood each other, but that seems to be one of the only good things to come out of this war.


End file.
